[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By Jeff Waller, 7 Mindsets Co-Creator and VP of Educational Services 

For the last ten years, our team has researched the sources of happiness. The objective of our effort, which continues today, is to find the characteristics that repeat themselves in the makeup of people who are happy, successful and find the greatest meaning from their time on earth.

While our work has identified a number of these traits, there is one that stands clearly above them all. The single quality that rises to the top in creating and perpetuating happiness is kindness. It is the principle that, if we simply create value and serve others and our world, the people and the world itself will respond to us in kind.  There is no more fundamental truth than that of love and kindness.

Below are 37 “Be Kind” quotes that inspire us, attributed to some of the wisest and most insightful individuals from the 5th century BC to the present day.

37 Quotes from the Masters on Kindness

  1. Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. – Teddy Roosevelt
  2. It is true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed. – Napoleon Hill
  3. Sorrow shared is halved, joy is doubled – Ancient Proverb
  4. The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. – Ghandi
  5. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. – Martin Luther King
  6. Love conquers all – Virgil
  7. The greatest gift is a portion of thyself – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  8. You can accomplish anything you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want first. – Zig Ziglar
  9. Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. – Desmond Tutu
  10. You give but little when you give your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give… – Kahlil Gibran
  11. You cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening your own. – Rumi
  12. He who gathers has little. He who scatters has much. – Lao Tzu
  13. Good works are links that form a chain of love – Mother Teresa
  14. We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  15. To be happy, make other people happy. – W. Clement Stone
  16. Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others. – Helen Keller
  17. Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can – John Wesley
  18. Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others – Plato
  19. The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer somebody else up – Mark Twain
  20. Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile – Ancient Chinese Proverb
  21. The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule. – Albert Einstein
  22. He who is not a good servant will not be a good master – Plato
  23. The only wealth which you will keep forever is the wealth you have given away. – Marcus Aurelius
  24. I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. – Maya Angelou
  25. If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind, whom should we serve? – John Adams
  26. They who give have all things; they who withhold have nothing – Hindu Proverb
  27. The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving. – Albert Einstein
  28. You can’t have a perfect day without doing something for someone who’ll never be able to repay you. – John Wooden
  29. Never believe that a few caring people cannot change the world. For, indeed, that is all who ever have. – Margaret Meade
  30. Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness – Seneca
  31. For it is in giving that we receive – St. Francis Assisi
  32. If you have much to give, give of your wealth. If you have little to give, give of your heart. – Arabian Proverb
  33. People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou
  34. Fragrance clings to the hand that gives the rose – Ancient Eastern Proverb
  35. Any person who contributes to prosperity must prosper in turn. – Earl Nightingale
  36. From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life. – Arthur Ashe
  37. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. – Jesus Christ

The meaning of our lives will be defined by the joy we experience and the fingerprint we leave on the world. We truly do get from our life what we put into it. If we help spread kindness, gratitude and joy, I believe those things will come back to us exponentially.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]